Century of the Common Iowan is 1 Year Old

One year ago yesterday, I started Century of the Common Iowan. I picked the name in honor of the great Iowan, Henry Wallace, who was Vice President under FDR. In my first post, I wrote...

Wallace never became President. If he had the world would surely be a different place today. That doesn't mean his message should be forgotten. We have started a new Century, so lets call for the 21st Century to be the Century of the Common Man. In a time when our nations priorities are backwards, we need a Century of the Common Man. There is no better place to start the call than in the state where Henry Wallace was born, Iowa.

I wanted the blog to be a collection of interesting stories and videos that I found and a chance for me to write about some of the important issues that affect the lives of common Iowans. It seems that a lot of our political debate is centered around the hot button wedge issues, while the issues that affect the live of the common Iowan are continually being ignored.

Over the past year I have written a lot about issues such as the rising cost of college tuition and Iowa's Brain Drain, immigration, and the need for a trade policy that protects American jobs. I have focused on the need to stand up for the core Democratic values of equality, opportunity, freedom, the rule of law, separation of powers, and security.

This has led me write about the false moderates that make up part of the Democratic Party. These so-called Centrists fail to stand up for these core Democratic beliefs. They believe they can have it both ways by voting for the interests of big business, while speaking about the interests of the common American. Then they tell the core Democrats their views are out of the mainstream. David Sirota writes...

That’s really the problem with the term - and with Washington’s definition of it. “Centrism” as defined in the political dialogue today means “being in the middle of elite opinion in Washington, D.C.” But if you plot this “center” on the continuum that is American public opinion, you will find that it is nowhere near the actual center of the country at large. The center of elite Washington opinion is ardently free trade, against national health care, opposed to market regulation, for continuing the Iraq War, and supportive of the flattest tax structure we’ve had in contemporary American history. That center is on the extreme fringe of the center of American public opinion, which is ardently skeptical of free trade, for universal health care, supportive of strong market regulations, insistent that the war end soon, and in favor of making the tax system more progressive.

I have been lucky and received some invitations to meet politicians when they have been in Iowa that I would not have gotten if I did not have a blog. These have come from Wesley Clark, Bill Richardson, John and Elizabeth Edwards, and Iowans for Sensible Priorities. I haven't been able to attend some of these events, but it is great to be invited.

Some political events in Iowa that I did get a chance to attend include John Edwards campaigning in Ames and his official announcement for President, Tom Harkin campaigning for a local state house race, Chris Dodd campaigning for Chet Culver and Dave Loebsack, and live blogged from Barack Obama's rally in Ames (Part 1 and Part 2). In the Democratic Primary for Governor, I wrote a lot about the Ed Fallon campaign, clean elections, and the Values Fund. Before the 2006 Elections, I had the chance to have meetings with Dave Loebsack, Selden Spencer, and Denise O'Brien.

Some people ask me why I take the time to do this. I am reminded of this quote by Paul Wellstone...

Politics is what we create by what we do, what we hope for, and what we dare to imagine.

It has been a great year blogging and I don't plan on stopping anytime soon. Thanks for reading and please keep coming back.

What Bills Made it Through Funnel Week?

Popular Progressive takes a close look at what bills made it through funnel week and what bills did not. It is worth checking out.

If a bill did not pass through committee this week then it can not be debated the rest of the session. Here is a list of bills that passed through committee and are still up for debate (The ones in bold are ones that I believe to be the biggest issues)...

Bills that are still "Staying Alive" (Grazi, Brothers Gibb)

Raise teacher pay by average $2,000 a year
Raise cigarette tax by $1 per pack
Create Iowa Power Fund to encourage renewable/alternative energy
Add sexual orientation/gender identity to protected civil rights classes
Create safe zones to keep sexual predators away from children
Give injured workers choice of doctor
Take steps to limit greenhouse gas emissions
Ease water-based requirements for landed casinos
Allow same-day voter registration
Extend school infrastructure sales tax statewide
Raise compulsory school attendance age to 18
Give incentives to attract film-making projects in Iowa
Require ``paper trail'' for voting machines
Cap interest rates at 21 percent for car-title loans
Ban ownership or possession of a wild animal
Empower local smoking regulation
Give counties more say in hog-lot siting decisions
Adopt tough ``zero tolerance'' penalties for sexual predators
Establish private cause of action for consumer fraud
Lower legal threshold for boating while intoxicated
Bar parent-teacher conferences on general election day
Remove unarmed combat fight from regulation by state labor commissioner
Require kids under 13 to wear floatation jackets on boats
Require back-seat passengers under age 18 to be restrained
Change cable franchise laws
Expand Great Places program
Create crime for abuse of a human corpse
Create statewide voluntary 4-year-olds preschool program
Establish community-based wind energy program
Regulate body piercing and require parental consent for minors
Register beer kegs
Give school district reorganization incentives
Bar remote control or Internet hunting of wild animals
Limit campaign contributions for statewide/legislative elections
Shield personal identifiable information in county records
Require landlord to have good cause to end mobile home rental pact
Establish program for home visits for all families with a newborn child
Exclude unarmed combat fighting from boxing and wrestling regulation
Require state to convert state-owned vehicles to alternative fuel vehicles
Negotiate bottle bill changes
Restrict investment in Sudan
Reimburse students the cost of advanced placement exams
Prohibit people younger than 17 riding in the open bed of a pickup
Replace ``idiot'' with ``mentally incompetent'' in Iowa Constitution
Delineate core curriculum standards
Prohibit tobacco use on school property

Update: Obama Paid His Parking Tickets

Barack Obama has paid his parking tickets that dated back to his Harvard Law days.

Here are the details...

Two weeks before the Illinois senator officially entered the presidential race on February 10, he paid parking fines he received while attending Harvard Law School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a Cambridge city official said on Thursday

I guess this puts him back on my list of top candidates.

This Changes Everything on Obama

Barack Obama was near the top of my list of presidential hopefuls until yesterday when I saw this story on Political Insider...

Obama had 17 parking tickets while at Harvard Law; That went unpaid for 17 years.

Oh the horror!

This shows that people are willing to dig deep, real deep for dirt on the candidates. It is pretty ridiculous and it is what ends up turing people off from being active in politics.

Pretty soon we will see ads like this...

Iowa Power Fund Passes Out of Committee

From the Iowa Renewable Energy Association (IRenew)...

The Iowa Energy Independence act passed the first funnel last night and is alive and well. Many energy issues are included in the bill, including more funding for the Iowa Energy Center. I have pasted the bill in its entirety below.

From the Des Moines Register:

Iowa Power Fund

WHAT: A $100 million fund to go toward research in alternative energy sources, such as wind, plants, grasses, animal wastes, solar power, water, vegetables, and other renewable sources. Gov. Chet Culver is seeking an immediate $25 million. The rest would be spent over the following three years.

WHY IT'S IMPORTANT: The goal is to help start and expand energy businesses in Iowa, to make Iowa a leader in researching new energy technologies, to create new high-paying jobs, to leverage new private investments, to lower energy costs for Iowans, to cut Iowa's dependence on foreign oil, and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and stabilize the global climate.

WHAT'S NEW: The policy piece of the plan, House File 498, was endorsed by a House committee late Tuesday as lawmakers scrambled to keep it alive past the first legislative funnel deadline. The bill includes a new director of energy independence, an advisory council of experts to set goals and guide spending, and the power fund. Meanwhile, the money piece, Senate Study Bill 1298, was approved in a Senate committee Tuesday morning.

The Iowa Power Fund was a key of Culver's campaign for governor. During the campaign the plan showed that Culver had the vision to lead the state into the future. Energy indpendence is not an easy task and bills like this are a key to achieving these goals.

Fallon Lecture in Des Moines Thursday

Ed Fallon is giving a lecture on Thursday night in Des Moines called Politics as a Religous Vocation. I think this would be very interesting to attend, but probably won't get the chance to.

A couple people that I talked to before the Democratic primary said they usually vote Republican, but were voting for Fallon because he had the strongest religous values of any of the candidates. Here is more about the lecture from an email from Ed Fallon...

I’m giving a talk this Thursday, March 8 at 7:30 p.m. at St. Catherine of Siena Student Center, 1150 28th Street in Des Moines. It’s the annual Stringfellow Lecture, and the subject of my talk is “Politics as a Religious Vocation.” I’m excited about it because, while I do a lot of public speaking, I don’t often get to discuss the confluence of faith and politics in my life. It’s free and open to the public. Regardless of your own faith journey, regardless of whether or not you even have a faith journey, I’d be delighted to see you there.

While my faith is Christianity, I have profound respect for all true religions. Over the years, the wisdom I have garnered from other faiths has helped me understand my own faith better. Yet the gospel is, for me, a true inspiration. Jesus is one of my political heroes. Divinity aside, any guy who can take on a corrupt foreign power and a compliant domestic power while feeding the poor, healing the sick and preaching good news to the downtrodden – well, that’s somebody I’d like to meet.

Renewable Energy Legislation in Iowa

I received an email from the Iowa Renewable Energy Association (IRenew) discussing all of the energy related bills introduced at the state level. I was surprised at how many bills there were and at how far-reaching and large-scale some of them are.

Here is a look at the different bills...

Senate:

• Senate File 314 Would require all utilities in Iowa to provide net metering
• Senate File 241 Would increase the percentage of electricity to be produced from renewable energy sources- 20% by 2020
• Senate File 355 Would create a community-based wind energy program in Iowa
• Senate File 122 Would give a sales tax exemption for energy-efficient appliances
• Senate File 229 Would add an Energy conservation technician for the capitol complex
• Senate File 285 Would promote energy efficiency in schools, biodiesel transportation, and green buildings
• Senate File 286 Energy efficiency performance standards for utilities, 20% reduction in consumption by 2020.
• Senate File 288 Adoption and enforcement of energy conservation requirements in building code.
• Senate File 301 Requiring utilities board to establish energy efficiency rules for merchant power plants.
• Senate File 242 Would require energy usage information to be included in real estate disclosure statements.
• Senate File 296 Would create a local government energy innovation competitive grant program.

House:

• House File 347 Establish energy utility assessment and resolution program for low-income persons who have need or deferred payment agreement for home energy utility costs.
• House File 166 Would extend the time period that a qualified facility, using wind energy, to be placed in service to qualify for the state wind energy tax credit.
• House File 498 Would establish an Iowa energy independence office and the Iowa power fund

IRenew is asking that people contact their State Representitive and State Senator and ask them to support renewable energy and energy efficiency measures.

Obama Visiting Iowa This Weekend

It is going to be a busy weekend for presidential canidates. Not only is John Edwards coming to the state, but Barack Obama is visiting eastern Iowa.

Here are the details for Obama's events...

SATURDAY

Loras College Fieldhouse
1450 Alta Vista, Dubuque
Doors open: 11:30 AM

Clinton Community College
1000 Lincoln Blvd, Clinton
Doors open: 3:00 PM

North High School Gym
626 W. 53rd St., Davenport
Doors open: 5:30 PM

SUNDAY

West Middle School
600 Kindler Ave., Muscatine
Doors open: 10:00 AM

Southeastern Community College
West Burlington Campus
1500 West Agency Rd., Burlington
Doors open: 1:30 PM

Burlington is the lucky one that gets Edwards on Saturday and Obama on Sunday.

John Edwards Visiting Iowa This Weekend

John Edwards will be in Iowa this weekend making stops in Council Bluffs, Sioux City, Newton, Ottumwa, and Burlington. I am hoping to attend the event in Newton.

Here is more information...

Friday, March 9, 2007 at 12:15 PM
Council Bluffs Senior Center
714 Main Street
Council Bluffs, IA

Friday, March 9, 2007 at 5:15 PM
Sanford Community Center
1700 Geneva Street
Sioux City, IA

Saturday, March 10, 2007 at 11:00 AM
UAW Local #997
1813 1st Street North
Newton, IA

Saturday, March 10, 2007 at 2:00 PM
Indian Hills Community College
Advanced Technology Center
Ottumwa, IA

Saturday, March 10, 2007 at 5:45 PM
Burlington Convention Hall
310 Jefferson St.
Burlington, IA

DFA Night School tonight: Holding Elected Officials Accountable

Passing on info about the DFA Night School session taking place tonight. I have participated in these before and they are very good. The session is about holding elected officials accoutable. You can sign up here.

Here is more info...

DFA Night School is our interactive online training program. In this session we will be joined by our guest expert Tom Swan, Director of Connecticut Citizen Action and former campaign manager for 2006 DFA-List candidate Ned Lamont.

You'll learn the skills for citizen lobbying and the tactics to make sure you're effective.

The workshop will start at 8:30pm Eastern Time and continue for approximately one hour. It will consist of a conference call with an accompanying downloadable slideshow which you can save to your computer in advance

You are not required to be online during the presentation, you simply need to dial into the conference call with a regular phone. The call-in number will be sent to you before the event, as long as you have RSVPed.

Rants Kicks Republican Out of Republican Caucus for Disagreeing With Him

I teach 2nd grade and occasionally have to settle arguments that take place on the playground. The incidents usually begin with 2 students disagreeing with each other over little things. Then the students will say they don't want to be friends with each other and one says the other can't play with them anymore.

This is basically what happened in the Iowa House last week when Minority Leader Christopher Rants (R-Sioux City) kicked out Walt Tomenga (R-Johnston) from the Republican Caucus debate on raising the cigarette tax. Tomenga favors a $1 per pack increase in the cigarette tax, a move that Rants has been working hard to stop.

Democrats found a lonely Tomenga in the lunchroom and invited him to speak at their caucus...

Tomenga said he accepted the Democrats' invitation and took some ribbing from them about possibly changing parties. He said he has no plans to do so, even though he sometimes is out of step with Republican leaders. "I admit I'm probably an unusual Republican," he said with a smile. "But you could make the case that anybody who calls themselves a Republican is unusual, so I fit right in."

It is pretty easy to tell who Rants' real friends are. Last year, Rants received $138,497 from RJ Reynolds Tobbacco's political action committee. It doesn't matter what side of the aisle you are in, when you have work to do on behalf of your largest campaign contributors.

Stop Funding the War and Start Funding the Troops

"Stop funding the war and start funding the troops"

This should be the message from every Democrat in Congress.

Democrats have a chance to take a stand and finally give our troops the support they deserve. Our troops were sent to Iraq lacking proper body armour, the VA budget was recently cut, troops are being sent to Iraq without the proper training, and now the news about the mistreatment of our Vets have received at Walter Reed. It is an embarassment to our nation that puts so much pride in our freedoms that we don't support those who fight for them.

The American people sent a message in the November election that they wanted a change in policy in Iraq. In a ABC/Washington Post Poll 64% of Americans say the Iraq War was not worth fighting and 56% say our troops should be withdrawn out of Iraq.

Our elected officials in Congress should be putting legislation together that sets a deadline when all troops must be redeployed. Then take the money that was going to be spent on combat in Iraq and put that into Veteran benefits, upgrading Walter Reed, and the VA hospitals.

It is time that we invest in our most valued treasure. Now if only all the Democrats in Congress would stand up and say, "Stop funding the war and start funding the troops."